Rainy season

It's still the rainy season in Mbeya. We don't get rain every day but some days, such as yesterday, we get deluges! And when we do, the pot holes and drainage ditches fill up with so much water that the roads are hard to maneuver.
Yesterday eve, Sharmala, Jan, and I ventured off to a friend's house for dinner out into the dark and rainy night. It was so hard to see the people on foot and on bikes as they too were challenged by the floods. It's really a wonder more people are hit and injured -- and I'm glad I'm not the one behind the wheel of the truck.
We shared a wonderful home cooked Indian-Tanzanian meal of chicken curry, rice, spicy peas, yummy little appies called bajia made with grounded up lentils and cilantro , then deep fried and served with a light chutney. . . . hmmmm. For dessert, we had a dish made with roasted vermicelli cooked with water and sugar than served with a spot of cream and gulab jamum (deliciously sweet balls of ??) and washed down with passion juice - a favorite around here. I'm now inspired to try my hand at some Asian cooking when I get home (Indian? Thai?).

Our hostess also provided us with many insights into what it's like to live & work in Tanzania. . . the politics of running a business. She was saying that at her factory (where she is in management), they spend more time meeting & talking than getting things done and it drives her crazy. They wonder why the minutes of each meeting look like the ones from the day before!
In general, people don't worry about time and seem to do things later rather than earlier. For example the new Mbeya airport was started at least 5 years ago and still is not ready to be opened (the runways have barely been started). I guess a person needs to develop a lot of patience.
Sharmala's friend made so much food for us that we had to bring home so left-overs . . . and they are "calling to me" right now! Must go off for few munchies.